TheMidnightFrogs
The Midnight Frogs is an amateur comedic-writing and abridging team, headed by Mugiwara Yoshi and ThornBrain. Their primary project is their production of Sgt Frog Abridged, though they also make one-shot Abridges and other parody videos. The name is based on the Sgt Frog series, and because early-on in the team's lifetime, they came up with a majority of their funniest material very late at night. Team Bulge Bomb is a sister group, headed by ThornBrain with Midnight Frogs voice actors BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate. Vorhias also heads his own production team, LaserBucks Productions, which frequently includes Thorn and TheSmashBro. The Midnight Frogs also have a Let's Play/Retsupurae channel under the name TheStrawhatNO!. Members Main Staff *Mugiwara Yoshi - Lead writer (SFA1R through SFA16), Voice actor *ThornBrain - Lead writer, Voice actor, Video editor, VA director, Site and channel manager *BigTUnit1 - Voice actor, Guest Writer (SFA9 - SFA11, SFA15), Lead writer (SFA17 onward) Honorary Midnight Frogs *LillyLivers - Voice actress, Guest writer (SFA6) *codeblackhayate - Voice actress *RevyMoonshine - Voice actress *Jpace92 - Voice actor *Vorhias - Voice actor *Tempe - Artist Voice Actors Key: * is for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged characters / ** is for Best Wishes Abridged characters *ThornBrain - Narrator, Fuyuki Hinata, Private Tamama, Corporal Giroro, Lance Corporal Dororo, Lesbo #2, Solid Snake, Charmander*, THE WHALE*, Pichu*, Gengar*, Ash Ketchum**, Professor Oak**, James**, Mijumaru**, Tsutaja**, Zekrom**, Mamepato**, Pokedex** *Mugiwara Yoshi - Sergeant Keroro, Lesbo #1, Squirtle*, Chikorita*, Skarmory* *LillyLivers - Natsumi Hinata, Aki Hinata, Chief Medic Pururu, Momoka Nishizawa (SFA2R), Delia Ketchum**, Professor Araragi**, Iris** *RevyMoonshine - Koyuki Azumaya, Asami (SFA5) *codeblackhayate - Angol Mois, Jessie** *Jpace92 - Sergeant Major Kululu *BigTUnit1 - Viper, Mop, Paul Moriyama *Vorhias - Director (SFA8), George Albert Nishizawa (SFA12), Pikachu*, Pikachu** Guest Voice Actors *TheSmashBro - HQ *Al Vee - Kangaskhan* *xJerry64x - Giovanni**, Animator (SFA8) *1KidsEntertainment - Sumomo, Animator (SFA8) *LordMoonstone - Shooter** Former Voice Actors *DFatman - Corporal Giroro, Mutsumi Saburo (SFA1R) *GhostTC - Sergeant Major Kululu (SFA2R and SFA3R) *RenegadeFaith - Angol Mois (SFA2R) *Narusasu - Momoka Nishizawa, Alisa Southerncross (SFA13) Videos Sgt Frog Abridged (Series began airing February 16, 2010) [[Sgt Frog Abridged#Episode Listing|Main article: Sgt Frog Abridged Episode Listing]] One-Shots, Spin-Offs and Stand-Alone Videos *''Paper Abridged'' (April Fool's 2010) - Thorn records himself with his webcam folding a piece of paper, a very literal "abridging". *Really Shit Drawings of a Japanese Pokemon Thing by MYTB ROCK ON HOMIES - Yoshi and Thorn's parody of BMNC's MSPaint parodies of Sgt Frog, though using Pokemon instead. Makes fun of BMNC's tendency to use Japanese words in otherwise English dialogue, the use of outdated internet memes, Windows Movie Maker, and the bad voice actors who auditioned for her series. *''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged'' (June 14, 2010) - Abridging of a one-episode Pokemon special made to promote the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. Makes heavy use of the team's absurdist tendencies. Originally supposed to be uploaded before ''SFA'' Episode 2R, but SFA2R was finished well before then. Removed from YouTube but backed up on Blip. Was restored on December 1. *''Best Wishes Abridged'' (November 25, 2010) - Abridging of the first two episodes of Pokemon: Best Wishes, the then-most recent season of the Pokemon anime. Is heavily satirical of the anime and its tropes/cliches. *''Other People's Wedding Videos Abridged'' (April Fool's 2011) - Thorn dubs over a pastor reading a bizarre, surreal piece written by the groom at a wedding, with occasional shouting by Yoshi as audience members. *''Crash Abridged'' - A very short, YouTube Poop-like video combining footage from the short film adaptation of the JG Ballard novel with "54321 and Rock and Roll and Go" by Japanese Dance-Rock band The Jerry Lee Phantom. Creator Commentaries Commentaries of SFA episodes and one-shots. *''SFA Episode 1R Commentary'' - November 9, 2010 *''SFA Episode 2R Commentary'' - November 10, 2010 *''PMDA Commentary'' - November 10, 2010 *''SFA Episode 3R Commentary'' - March 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 4 Commentary'' - March 28, 2011 *''SFA Episode 5 Commentary'' - June 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 6 Commentary'' - June 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 7 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 8 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 9 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 10 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''BWA Commentary'' - March 30, 2012 The team will commentate the SFA Season 2 episodes when the season is over Solo Commentaries Thorn commentating the episodes solo. *''SFA1R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA2R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA3R'' - March 31, 2012 Gag Reels Videos of outtakes and bloopers are released at the halfway point and finale of every season. *''Gag Reel #1'' - First half of Season 1 (SFA episodes 1® - 5, PMDA, BWA). *''Gag Reel #2'' - Second half of Season 1 (SFA episodes 6 - 10). *''Gag Reel #3'' - First half of Season 2 (SFA episodes 1 - 3, 11 - 15) Trailers/Promos The Midnight Frogs have uploaded original promos shortly before new Abridging one-shots are completed, sometimes to also announce a new Abridging project. Trailers were also made for the original first two SFA episodes. They may also upload trailers of their non-Midnight Frogs work. *SFA Episode 1 Teaser - Dr Freud - Brief clip containing a joke from Episode 1R with a new, follow-up joke caption. It hinted at a subtle running joke involving Natsumi. Was deleted May 8, 2011. *Pikmin Let's Play Trailer - To promote the then-new Let's Play by Yoshi and Thorn, Yoshi sings his own translation of the Japanese Pikmin-based song "Ai no Uta" ("Song of Love") to footage of the game. The song ends abruptly as a team of yellow Pikmin accidentally blow themselves up, to which an aggravated Yoshi reacts, "Fuck!". *SFA Episode 2 Promo - Keroro is playing an incomprehensible board game by himself while pretending to be his crew members. The video hints at the fact that the character of Momoka had, at the time, been a constant problem, and that the team wanted the episode done as well but were unable to continue. *Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged promo - Someone very quickly and very vaguely describes the events that unfold in the video, focusing mainly on the Squirtle boy. When he is through, it is revealed that Charmander was telling the story; he asks someone behind the camera, "Doesn't that sound cool?" to which Squirtle responds, "Dude, I'm that fucking Squirtle!" ThornBrain then announces the PMDA project and its June 14th release date. Writing Style The team's writing style is a mixture of irony, absurd/incoherent one-liners, awkward silences, and Arrested Development-inspired subtle referencing and joke-telling. The team make a conscious effort to not make obvious or overdone references, unless the real joke in the situation plays off of the reference, (for example, Keroro mangling the Over 9000 meme for comedic effect). The team do not consider direct joke-steals as references, and are against joke-stealing. Most of the jokes are created while the writers talk over Skype, sometimes by accident. They are one of the few Abridging teams who do not censor swearing, and they in fact cuss profusely. Song Parodies and Originals Parodies *A Pekoponian Day in the Life - parody of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". The music is a karaoke version of the original song. *Pretty Girl's All Mine - parody of Chris Isaak's "Pretty Girls Don't Cry". The music is performed by Thorn. *The Lonely Dance - parody of Men Without Hats' "The Safety Dance", with Thorn singing as Dororo to a karaoke version of the original song, with brief reactions by Revy Moonshine as Koyuki. *''A Christmas Special (It's special, alright)'' - features parodies of several Christmas carols and standards, as sung by various SFA characters. *The Valentine's Parody - parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time, with Yoshi singing to a karaoke version of the original, backed occasionally by Thorn. Originals *Stroke in the Sun - written by Thorn and Travis, performed by Thorn. Song is in an oldies/Rock & Roll style with a heavy metal bridge, inspired by The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, and Napalm Death. Unreleased *"Tamama's Titties" - A very old, pre-Episode 1R parody of The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine". The song was based on an inside joke between the team of a typo by DFatman. The song was written and primarily sung by ThornBrain, backed by Yoshi and Fatman to a karaoke version of the song. Podcast TheMidnightFrogs Podcast is hosted by Thorn and Yoshi, features an alternating list of the Midnight Frogs' team members, broadcasts on Vokle or Ustream (depending on Thorn's available hardware), and is archived on MediaFire. Full details are in the podcast's wiki article. TheMidnightFrogs Podcast is an offshoot of the team's original podcast, Fatty Time. The team began TheMidnightFrogs Podcast when they split from DFatman. History Founding In July 2009, Mugiwara Yoshi, (going by the username SMSYoshi at the time), requested help on a possible Sgt Frog Abridged in the UStream chat of the Wha-Chow! podcast. Among the people interested were ThornBrain, DFatman and GhostTC. The following November, Thorn and Fatman became friends and began doing Let's Plays together; that December, Yoshi bought his first microphone and joined them, all the while beginning planning on their Sgt Frog Abridged. Thorn asked to be the third writer to which Yoshi agreed, thus establishing the original main trio of the team, though Thorn and Yoshi wouldn't "click" until the following month. That same day, they set up their first podcast, Fatty Time, and GhostTC joined up as a voice actor two weeks after. Fatman suggested naming the team "The Midnight Frogs"; the team and account were officially founded on January 2, 2010, just shortly after deciding on the "Midnight Frogs" moniker. The core three put together their first audition video asking for voice actors on New Year's Day 2010, (almost none of the people who auditioned would stay with them for/past Episode 1). *''Other articles related to this era'': **''Tamama Tits'' **''Dorodo'' **''Kemama'' ''Sgt Frog Abridged'' Episodes 1 and 2, and the split from Fatman After a month-long period of fluctuating voice actors, during which LillyLivers, RenegadeFaith, SuperChang487, Tom Newton, and LordMog joined up (Lilly would eventually become an honorary Midnight Frog while every other user would be removed by the end of Season 1), scriptwriting began on [[Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1R|episode 1 of SFA]]. The episode was completed and uploaded on February 16, and the series quickly began developing a fan base. The team would go on to essentially disown the episode, officially retconning it on June 24, 2011; it is now referred to as "Episode 1R" or "SFA1R", meaning "Retconned". A canonical remake was made in June 2011. Fatman had already written Episode 2's script while lines were being recorded, though the original draft would be rewritten by Thorn and Yoshi due to them soon finding it mediocre. Lines were recorded, though in March Thorn discovered that the script and lines did not fit with the source video. He and Yoshi wrote a third script without Fatman, though episode production would continue to be held back until June as the team searched for a voice for Momoka. The two were quickly growing tired of working with and being around Fatman. They finally split from him on April 12, two days after Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged's script was finalized. The team cycled through a few Momoka voice actors for nearly four months, excluding the many they attempted to contact offering the voice, before finally asking Lilly. During the search, Thorn and Yoshi wrote an original promo for Episode 2 to keep viewers interested, though the promo would be set to "unlisted" in June 2011. The episode was completed on June 9, 2010 and uploaded the following midnight. It was received very positively, though Thorn and Yoshi would eventually disown it like with Episode 1R; it too is referred to as "Episode 2R" or "SFA2R". For a while Thorn said that if a running gag was not used past Episode 2R, it is no longer canon within SFAThornBrain, though the team eventually fully retconned the episode on June 25, 2011. A canonical remake was released July 29, 2011. *''Other articles related to this era: **''Category:No Longer with The Midnight Frogs'' **''TheStrawhatNO!'' **''TheMidnightFrogs Podcast'' ''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged'' During production of Episode 2R, Thorn and Yoshi began working on a secret project between just the two of them, which would become Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged. The project sat dormant until May when searching for a Momoka brought a renewed interest in PMDA. The video was edited at the same time as SFA Episode 2R, and it was completed shortly after SFA2R. It was uploaded June 14 to positive reception. The video was taken down, though it was reuploaded on their Blip channel, then to YouTube by a separate, unknown user. It has since been reinstated. *''Other articles related to this era'': **''Team Retard'' ''SFA'' Episodes 3 and 4, Best Wishes Abridged Because Episode 3 was short it had the smoothest development of the series up to that point, with the script and editing being completed quickly and the lines being completed on time (Lilly and Ghost were the only VAs beside Thorn and Yoshi to appear). It was also well-received and is considered a milestone among the team. However due to the remakes of SFA1 and SFA2, SFA3 had a few plotholes and anachronisms that Thorn convinced Yoshi needed fixing. As such, the episode was remastered and slightly altered; the remake was released July 30, 2011, though the video was completed weeks earlier. Episode 4 was completed and uploaded the night of October 23, 2010 to positive reception. It introduced Revy Moonshine to the series as Koyuki Azumaya, and it signaled LillyLivers becoming an honorary member of the Midnight Frogs. Yoshi and Thorn consider the episode to be the point where the team's abilities as abridgers began to truly click.Mugiwara YoshiThornBrain The script for a second secret project was completed on November 5, which was announced on November 20 as Best Wishes Abridged, then completed and released on Thanksgiving, November 25. BWA was arguably the most popular of any recent video of theirs, topped only by SFA Episode 1 in the number of "likes". It was taken down by Shopro numerous times through March; the team eventually decided to remove it from YouTube, and it is now a Blip-only video. End of 2010, First year anniversary, and hiatus Episode 5 began scripting on December 4, 2010. GhostTC and RenegadeFaith were removed from the voices of Kululu and Mois respectively, and Thorn brought in Jpace92 and Codeblackhayate as their new VAs. SFA5 was completed and uploaded December 19, marking the halfway point for Season 1. To celebrate the halfway mark and the Christmas season, the first Gag Reel was uploaded on Christmas Eve, followed immediately by "A Christmas Special (It's special, alright)". With Episode 5 completed and the team's first year anniversary arriving with New Years, the team decided to take a hiatus from making videos; Thorn focused his time on recording his debut album for Futures Passed Free Music and other music projects. The album was completed and released on January 31. Second half of SFA Season One, SFA's Birthday Abridgers LordMoonstone and Xerostyle announced a January 2011 Abridging contest, which caused Yoshi and Thorn to decide to end their hiatus sooner than expected. The team began production of Episode 6 without giving any hints to their fans that they were doing so, and they included LillyLivers in the scriptwriting. The scripting began on January 10th, and the episode was finished and uploaded on the 23rd, breaking Episode 5's production time-record by two days. It was the team's favourite episode through the majority of the series, and it is one of their most popular episodes. When the contest winners were finally announced on September 9, 2011, SFA6 placed in the Top 10 at 9th, out of 200 entries.Abridged Contest Winners 10-4 The episode was released less than a month before SFA's first birthday on February 16, the anniversary of the upload of Episode 1R. A video was uploaded of Keroro announcing the birthday and asking for fans to send in their favorite jokes, characters, etc. The celebratory podcast was held on February 16; it included all of the main cast members plus Vorhias. Jpace92, codeblackhayate, RevyMoonshine, and Vorhias were all inducted as honorary Midnight Frogs at the show.SFA Birthday Party Episode 7 was released on February 19 to continued acclaim, expanding on Keroro, Giroro, and Dororo's childhood together, as well as Dororo and Giroro's relationship (which would become a recurring theme for the rest of the series). After the finale of SFA, Episode 7 was voted one of Thorn's, Yoshi's, and Travis' top 3 favourite episodes alongside 11 and 17. Episode 8 followed on March 23; Yoshi and Travis still like the episode while Thorn considers it to be one of the series' low points, admitting that the script was weak, and that he and Yoshi didn't have many ideas. BigTUnit1 Joins the Writing Staff, SFA Season One finale Thorn began Jetters Abridged shortly after SFA8, a project he had been planning for since the founding of The Midnight Frogs. He founded Team Bulge Bomb with Midnight Frogs VAs BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate and began making episodes alongside SFA. Due to his work in Jetters Abridged and because SFA8 was comparatively weaker than the previous two episodes, BigTUnit1 was brought in to co-write Episode 9; Thorn and Yoshi were so pleased with his contributions that he became a permanent writer for SFA. The episode was written in one night and was released April 17; it confused the majority of its audience, but it was still received very positively. Episode 10, the season one finale, was released on May 27 to acclaim (and shock due to the bizarre revelations made in the episode) from fans and great satisfaction from the team.Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 10 The team officially took a break from SFA until July. Episode Remakes, Season 2, Second Hiatus In actuality, the team remade Episode 1 a month early without their fans' awareness. Because SFA1R was retconned, the new SFA1 completely replaced it in the series' timeline and continuity. They then remade Episode 2 and Episode 3 in July, which all followed suit in replacing their originals in the continuity. Though the remakes were generally a hit with the fans and viewers, they did cause a small split in the fanbase, the dissenters preferring the originals. The remakes are currently the three most disliked episodes; SFA3 gathered more dislikes than any other video on The Midnight Frogs' channel.Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 2Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 3 Season 2 premiered on August 25, 2011 with Episode 11, which introduced Pururu and continued from where Episode 10 left off plot-wise and character-wise. It is the first episode to directly examine the series' recurring themes of sexual orientation, Thorn himself coming out during production as a bisexual transvestite. The episode quickly gained high marks from viewers and fans, much higher than the remakes had recieved.Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 11 Same for Episode 12, which expanded on Kululu's condition from Episode 11, Episode 13, which served as a Halloween special and introduced Alisa Southerncross and Black Nebula (the team agree that SFA13 is the series' worst episode), and Episode 14, which gave some backstory to Koyuki and Dororo. Episode 15 was released Christmas Eve, and was followed by the third Gag Reel. Due to exhaustion with the series and some dissatisfaction with the season, Thorn and Yoshi put the series and abridging in general on an indefinite hiatus after SFA15. The two spent the next two months focusing on their Let's Plays. They would eventually return to the series in March 2012, writing Episode 16, which would be released after the April trip to Boston for the Anime Boston convention. Yoshi Steps Down, Series Finale Yoshi confirmed on the following podcast that he was stepping down as writer of SFA, though he would still remain as Keroro's voice actor; Thorn now has creative control of the series. Some of Yoshi's material still remained in the script for SFA17, and a sudden spark of motivation to complete the series on a high note brought Yoshi back to script SFA18. Though Thorn said for a while that he would continue SFA in a different form (shorts, more song parodies, the movies), exhaustion and loss of motivation led him to make SFA18 the final episode in the entire series. SFA now lives on in the Ask GiroDoro audio blog. Thorn decided to move TheMidnightFrogs on to Tamers Abridged, once again working with Yoshi. Thorn made the scriptwriting sessions for all of SFA, plus PMDA and BWA, available free to download from his blog. The infamous Podcast post-shows, one of which birthed Mop, are also available to download. References Category:Team category:The Midnight Frogs